Power to loitering

Imagine the scene two Indian girls in Kuwait crossing an empty road waiting for their parents to pick them up A gang of boys heckle they ignore They then notice a pool of water collecting next to them The boys are urinating pointing towards them They scream and a Pakistani hawker across the road runs away But then he is back with five more hawkers and they chase the street harassers awayNeha Singh and Satchit Puranikrsquos play Loitering follows the experiences of six women and four men who recount what happened when one day they decided to loiter PicPradeep DhivarThis a true story about what happens when people loiter and more experiences like these are part of a play called Loitering produced by NCPA Edge and production house Sur owned by Amrita Dodani Director and actor Satchit Puranik 34 decided to make a play based on the Why Loiter campaign run by friend writer and actor Neha Singh 32In 2014 after Singh read Why Loiter Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets by Shilpa Phadke Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade she decided to take the Why Loiter idea to the streets The aim was to take women to open public spaces to roam so as to spread awareness about what is safe and unsafe and allow women could reclaim their city When Puranik first asked if he could come along he was told it was only for women But when he suggested he dress up like a girl Singh agreed It was later that we realised that its not just a gender problem its also a minorities problem like the one facing transgenders People of different castes and classes also face problems when they loiter says Singh as we chat at a cafeThe play includes experiences of six women and four men who recount what happened when one day they decided to loiter Puranik who was also casting director for critically acclaimed film Court has chosen the documentary theatre performance approach so that everyone in the audience can relate and know that their experiences also count We have taken people belonging to different ages life situations religions mdash so a 65yearold woman says that one day during a random picnic with her neighbours as she loiters she notices a sign that needs typists to type out PhD projects She then calls up her home and says she isnt going to return as she has a new job now Another story Nehas is about what happened when she decides to cycle in Mumbai as she used to when she was a kid growing up in Army cantonments What happened was that she got bullied and teased by a bunch of goons who worked for a regional political party When I questioned them they just gathered around me and started fighting says SinghThe play is an extension of the campaign thats been finding resonance across the world Some women from Pakistan who came across the Why Loiter blog decided to do something similar and started Women in Dhabas where girls would go sit chat at dhabas traditionally male hangouts Many people who call and want to be part of the movement also say since it was a midnight loiter I wore a salwar kurta But thats changing Some come and say I wore red lipstick because I have never done that We once loitered on to the last train of the day at 140 am and all the girls wore shorts It was about saying we can do this This is okay says SinghThe play which is going to be staged at NCPA on March 8 International Womens Day is trying to further the cause of the campaign by removing negative connotations associated with loiter I think that in the times that we live in where everyone is always trying to make the best of their time so as to say we are not wasting time We are productive we need to loiter more It will relax us and make us happier signs of Puranik